Afrospatialism at LA Design Festival ‘25: Redefining Black Geographies with Memory, Resistance, and Imagination
Presenting Afrospatialism - NOMMO’s newest framework.
NOMMO Cultural Strategies is proud to share our latest framework, Afrospatialism, a multidisciplinary framework for reimagining, repositioning, and reclaiming Black space, geographies, and topographies. Coined and introduced publicly by NOMMO’s founder, Tyree Boyd-Pates, during the 2025 LA Design Festival’s “Design Futurism” series, Afrospatialism offers a new lens and practice rooted in resistance, memory, and speculative imagination.
Afrospatialism emerges from the spatial politics of Black urban life and the philosophical legacy of Afrofuturism. Anchored in the futuristic ethos of Black Angeleno architect Paul R. Williams and speculative fiction icon Octavia E. Butler, a Black Angeleno, this framework centers Black spatial thinking as a site of both historical erasure and radical possibility.
Paul R. Williams
Octavia E. Butler
Traditional architectural and urbanist discourses have long marginalized Black geographies. Afrospatialism reclaims that ground and invites new imaginaries where Black communities hold agency over how and where they live, move, gather, and dream, past, present, and future.
At a time when Black space, memory, and imagination face threats from displacement, erasure, and cultural commodification, Afrospatialism provides a language and worldview for envisioning more liberated and equitable futures.
Far from a static concept, Afrospatialism is a dynamic, evolving process. It emphasizes active preservation through storytelling, visual culture, historical reflection, and cultural strategies that engage communities and honor their origins.
NOMMO’s first stop in illustrating Afrospatial thought was at the LA Design Festival 2025 in Los Angeles in June 2025.
On June 29, 2025, NOMMO Cultural Strategies, in collaboration with photographer and designer Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin of Nonstndrd Creative Projects, presented Afrospatialism: Reimagining Black Los Angeles at Row DTLA’s mainstage as part of the LA Design Festival’s "Design Futurism" series.
This session brought together dozens of attendees for a multidimensional exploration of Black space in Los Angeles- past, present, and speculative future. Together, we grounded the conversation in the core principles of Afrospatialism, while tracing the lineage of Black Los Angeles, from the Los Pobladores of 1781 to the Central Avenue jazz clubs, the battles against redlining, and contemporary gentrification.
Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin shared selections from his and Tyree’s Black Space Project, which documents historically Black neighborhoods in transition. His photography, inspired in part by the Curbed LA Green Book project, confronts themes of redevelopment, memory, and cultural resilience. He also debuted new speculative design work from Nonstndrd Creative—photo—based architectural drawings and visual reinterpretations of Los Angeles landmarks along MLK Boulevard and beyond.
The conversation culminated in a dialogue between Kwasi and Tyree Boyd-Pates on how Afrospatialism can serve as a practical worldview for artists, educators, and urban planners working to protect and reimagine Black space.
As the threat to Black geographies continues to grow, this moment reminded us: imagining and protecting Black space is not only preservation, it’s an act of liberation
Read Part 2 next week to learn how Afrospatialism is rooted in Black family history, migration, and cultural memory…